[maemo-developers] [Java] Mentor wanted for Summer of Code 2007 ;)

[From: Sebastian Mancke]

Hi,

Johannes Eickhold schrieb:
> On Mon, 2007-03-05 at 20:26 +0100, Clemens Eisserer wrote:
>> I wonder wether anybody would be willed to mentor me at Google's
>> Summer of Code 2007.
> 
> Hi Clemens,
> 
> I would like to support your effort as a mentor. But currently I don't
> know what is needed to be accepted as a mentor and what the process to
> apply as a mentor would be. If anybody on this list is able to clarify
> the situation, please feel free to do so!
> 
> Would it make sense to ask on sun's Java phoneME forum for support and
> possibly another mentor, too?
> 
> I'm also interested in broader feedback and opinions from the list about
> Java integration into maemo. 
Me too. Based on time, the really work on JaLiMo will start in April, so
this month may be the right time for ideas and wishes.

> It seems at least three possibilities are
> currently considered by different people.
> 
> 1. jamvm + classpath
> 2. cacaovm + classpath + java-gnome (jalimo by Sebastian Mancke)
> 3. sun's phoneME advanced
well, we should try to integrate any efforts.

1. vs. 2.
Between 1. an 2., IMO there is no big difference. The jamvm also runs
out of the box with the JaLiMo libraries. cacao is 3 times faster than
the jamvm, but has a 2.5 sec longer start up time. The classpath version
in 1. is 0.91, matching the gtk libraries of maemo. I, for now, have
tried to get the recent versions running, with the lack of AWT.

I think java-gnome is the way to do java gui's on this small linux
devices, because it is really fast and offers the opportunity to
integrate with special gui extensions (e.g. hildon on maemo or libmokoui
on openmoko). But this may be my special taste and will be exchangeable,
if someone has a different task to solve.

The difference from JaLiMo to 1. is that we try not only to build some
packages once. We have the goal to let a platform evolve, beyond the
runtime, which solves recurring problems every java developer hit when
he/she targets an linux embedded platform. Before n770, I did java on
Yopy and IPAQ/familiar with the same problems:
- Get a fast GUI working
- Desktop integration
- Packaging
- menu integration
- Configuration integration
- Connectivity to back-end-services

So we are trying to: Integrate once, write once, run on every mobile
linux device.

2. vs. 3.
In 3., I see two very different conceptual approaches:
- J2ME CDC (Minimal Java, no reflection, no JNI, MIDP 2.0)
This one is different to JaLiMo.
- J2ME CLDC (Java 1.3.1, AWT)
This second one has the same objective, but a completely other solution.

You should take a look at MIDPath (http://midpath.thenesis.org), which
already has a running MIDP (based on phoneME) on top of GNU Classpath,
Cacao, Kaffe and JamVM with different back end libraries. MIDPath would
perfectly fit with JaLiMo since it uses the same runtime.


-Sebastian


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